Ecuador decreed on Thursday the state of emergency after the murder of the Presidential candidate Ecuadorian Fernando Villavicenciosecond in intention to vote for the general elections on August 20, registered on Wednesday night in Quito.
The measure adopted by President Guillermo Lasso, which allows military patrols in the streets of this country plagued by violence linked to drug trafficking, seeks to guarantee the development of the elections, whose date is maintained.
Villavicencio, a 59-year-old former journalist from the center who uncovered several cases of corruption, had denounced threats against him and his campaign team last week. He died when he was shot when he was leaving a sports center in the north of the capital after leading a rally.
Lasso blamed the attack on members of the “organized crime” and warned that “the full weight of the law will fall on them”. “This crime will not go unpunished”he assured.
The candidate from the Construye and Gente Buena movements was one of the eight presidential candidates for early elections in Ecuador, a country that was an oasis of peace in South America for decades but began to change a few years ago due to links with Mexican cartels and Colombians.
“They remain unchanged” the dates of the elections, said on Thursday the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint.
Authorities from various state bodies held an urgent dialogue at the presidential headquarters after the attack that also left nine injured, including a candidate for assembly and two police officers.
An alleged attacker also died from a crossfire with security personnel and six people are in custody, according to the prosecutor’s office.
national mourning
To guarantee the holding of the elections, Lasso declared a state of emergency for 60 days throughout the nation. He also decreed three days of national mourning “to honor the memory of a patriot.”
“This is a political crime that takes on a terrorist character and we do not doubt that this murder is an attempt to sabotage the electoral process,” maintained the president.
After a prison massacre due to confrontations between prisoners with ties to the drug trafficker and the murder of a mayor while touring a construction site, Lasso had already decreed a state of emergency at the end of July in several locations with high rates of violence.
The doctor Carlos Figueroa, a friend of Villavicencio who was with him at the time of the attack, told the press that the attackers fired about 30 shots.
“They ambushed him outside” of the sports center, he said. “Some (of those present) even thought they were fireworks.”
The newspaper El Universo, the country’s main newspaper, stated that Villavicencio was assassinated “Sicariato style and with three shots to the head.” Police detonated an explosive device found at the site of the attack.
A video of a group of men dressed in black, hooded and armed with rifles who claim to be members of the Los Lobos criminal gang and claim responsibility for the crime without mentioning Villavicencio is circulating on the internet. Its origin could not be verified. Security experts believe it may be an attempt to manipulate crime.
Villavicencio had indicated that he was the target of threats from the largest criminal organization in Ecuador, Los Choneros, whose leader is in custody.
The country’s annual homicide rate nearly doubled by 2022 to 25 homicides per 100,000 residents. Prison massacres have left more than 430 inmates dead since 2021.
A “savage” crime
Villavicencio, a former member of the National Assembly dissolved by Lasso in May to make way for early elections, appeared second in the intention to vote with 13.2%, behind the lawyer Luisa González (26.6%), the only woman in the running and close to the former president. socialist Rafael Correa (2007-2017), according to the latest survey released by the company Cedatos.
The United States, Spain, Chile, the European Union and the OAS observer mission condemned the crime.
It’s a “blatant act of violence and attack on Ecuadorian democracy”said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
“It is an attack against Ecuador’s institutions and democracy (…) all candidates for elections must benefit from rigorous protection measures to guarantee a free and democratic electoral process,” declared the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
González and other presidential candidates such as Yaku Pérez (indigenous leader from the left, third with 12.5%) and Otto Sonnenholzner (former vice president from the right, fourth with 7.5%) announced the suspension of their campaigns and deplored the assassination.
As a journalist, Villavicencio -a staunch opponent of Correísmo- uncovered a corruption scheme for which Correa, who has lived in Belgium since 2017, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison.
Later, he served as president of the Legislative Oversight Commission, where he continued to denounce cases of corruption.
An aspiring representative was also assassinated during this electoral campaign, as well as two mayoral candidates before the local elections in February.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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